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Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Soul Music

Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Soul Music

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Plenty of "Soul"
Review: "Soul Music" features plenty of Discworld's most popular character: Death, the efficient-but-not-nasty Grim Reaper of Discworld. Full of jokes about "Music With Rocks In" and in-jokes about Discworld, this is a delight for kids and adults alike.

Ysobell and Mort Sto Helit die in a tragic carriage accident, leaving their teenage daughter Susan (Debra Gillett ) at a stodgy girls' academy in Anhk-Morpork. But unknown to Susan, they were also the adopted daughter and son-in-law of Death himself (Christopher Lee). Death is depressed by the loss of Ysobell and Mort, and at the advice of a slightly befuddled wise man, he takes leave of his duties in an effort to forget. His manservant Albert, a talking raven, and the Death Of Rats recruit the unwitting Susan to fill Death's place until he can be found. While Death gets drunk and joins the Klatchian Foreign Legion, Susan struggles to deal with the dead.

Elsewhere on the Disc, a young aspiring bard named Imp Y Celyn (Andy Hockley) leaves his dreary home for Anhk-Morpork, intending to become the greatest musician in the world. After gaining two bandmates (a dwarf named Glod and a troll named Lias Bluestone), earning the displeasure of the Music Guild, and losing his harp, Imp Y Celyn finds a magical guitar that produces amazing music -- by taking over all the musicians on the stage. The music ("Music With Rocks In") soon takes the Disc by storm. At the same time, Susan finds that Imp Y Celyn is supposed to die very shortly -- but something in the magic guitar doesn't want him to die. And, it turns out, neither does she...

The other Discworld production, "Wyrd Sisters," was extremely entertaining, but "Soul Music" surpasses it by having deeper issues in it, as well as the funny ones. Why do humans die? Is it better to die after a human life than an immortal, inhuman one? Interspersed are many old favorites such as the wizard-turned-ape Librarion, Colon and Nobby, Death of Rats, Albert, Binky the horse, Ridcully and his wizards at the Unseen University (Ridcully is the only one who hates Music With Rocks In), and many others. For rock aficionados, there are jokes about Elvis, the Sex Pistols, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and many, many others.

Christopher Lee mixes the sublime and the funny as Death: he's alternately menacing (the time-travel scene where he menaces Mort), melancholy (the scene where he tries to explain to Susan why he couldn't save her parents), and outrageously funny, like the scenes where he is drunk, driving a motorcycle ("Oh bugger!"), or arguing with a wise man about the infinite ("What did it look like?" "It's blue." "It's black." "It's BLUE." "It's BLACK!" "From the outside, it's blue!"). Debra Gillet does a pretty good job with the difficult role of Susan, who initially seems very cold and unsympathetic, but gradually is revealed to be an ordinary girl with extraordinary abilities. Andy Hockley plays Buddy/Imp Y Celyn as a pleasant young man in the throes of an obsession, developing an unnatural link to his soul-sapping guitar. His two bandmates Lias and Glod are good foils for Imp Y Celyn, with Lias as the voice of straightforward reason and Glod the more cynical, twisted mind, but both of them good at heart. And any parents will sympathize with the frustrated Ridcully, who has to deal with a University full of music-crazed wizards, who are acting like unusually immature teenagers.

The animation is also slightly better than in "Wyrd Sisters." While it still has something of a crude quality, it remains more consistent from one to the next. One thing that may annoy viewers (and the DVD's biggest flaw) is that each part takes the viewer back to the menu rather than proceeding to the next part. Additionally, "recap" snippets and opening credits are present before every part, rather than just the first.

However, technical issues aside, this is a hilarious and touching story about life, death, Death, fate, magic, music, and Music With Rocks In. A must-see.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I really, really wanted to rate this higher...
Review: ...because the voice acting is mostly great, some of the art design -- like that of Cliff's character -- is superb, and the music nicely skewers the whole broad sweep of early rock in what's simultaneously a swift kick and a respectful nod.

But the animation is awful. Awful. Mind-numbingly bad. And it's a real shame, because the ART is pretty good.

In other words, you have these very nicely painted -- if occasionally quirky -- renditions of classic Discworld characters, mostly very well-realized, that unfortunately happen to stutter and jerk and lurch and blink their way through the quirky and nicely-painted backgrounds. Honestly, I've seen Saturday morning cartoons with more fluid animation.

If you can get past that, though, perhaps through the useful expedient of being blind or choosing to play the series while sitting beneath a strobe light, the episodes are a genuine pleasure -- and remarkably close to the source material.

(Note: I say "episodes" throughout because, in a somewhat unusual design decision, each of the various episodes of the series is stored on the DVD independently; you'll probably tire of the CGI opening sequence by the third or fourth episode, no matter HOW much you love Great Atuan.)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Soul Music Rocks!!
Review: As a Terry Pratchett fan, I eagerly awaited the arrival of "Soul Music" and I wasn't disappointed! The story was true to the book, and very entertaining. Mainly it's a story of Death's attempts to forget,and his granddaughter's attempt to fill his shoes. While Susan is filling in for death, she meets a boy whose death is averted by music. She than tries to figure out the how and why, and what to do next.Sounds confusing, but my husband, who doesn't follow the discworld, could keep up with it. I only have two complaints that keep it from receiving a perfect score. One, they used the same animators that did "Wyrd Sisters" so the animation seemed almost from the 1970's (someone compared it to the animation for Fat Albert!)and dated, and two, it was not a seamless story. The DVD version was broken into episodes . I found it distracting to get into the story and to have that episode end, and then have to go to the menu to choose the next one. The extras;howerver, were fabulous. They include an interview with Terry Pratchett, a copy of the pilot (which seemed to be based on the beginning of Reaper Man), a story board break down of one of the scenes, and more. If you like Terry Pratchett, or even writers such as Douglas Adams, this is a fabulous disc!! (pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself!)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost perfect!
Review: Finally this gem of animated antics in the strange world of Discworld comes is avaliable in the US. This DVD is ecxcellent! A must-have for fans of Terry Pratchetts' works... The story is excellent, the animations are very nice, and extremely true to the Discworld universe, and the music is exquisite! (Wich they'd release a soundtrack ;) The only thing I found disapointing in this release is the option of watching the entire series in one go, instead of having to watch the end-credits after each episode, and then manually choose the next one... But that's only nit-picking. Conclusion: Get this DVD right now! You will not regret it...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Quality Control Problems
Review: For what it's worth, the video itself is quite good. Faithful to the book, for the most part.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Soul music does capture the Soul
Review: Greetings fellow Diskworld fans and first timers, if you only own one DVD this needs to be the one. My wife and I are very big Pratchett Fans and this DVD goes well with our collection of Diskworld items. Having read the book 'Soul music' cover to cover many times I was hoping the animated version would stay close to home, and for the most part it does this very well. There are just a few little things that did not make it to the DVD but all in all this DVD is Great! I will be watching it years from now! It stays VERY close to the book, and it leaves you praying for the next installment of animated features. I was very happy to hear the voice of Death was the same for 'Wyrd Sisters'. This disk also contains a great interview with Terry Pratchett himself.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WARNING!!! Do NOT but this DVD!!!!!
Review: I am a big fan of all things Disc World and I bought this DVD as soon as it became available but have had nothing but trouble I have had FOUR copies of this dvd trying to get one that worked and EVERYONE had the EXACT same problems!!! And I tried them all in 3 different DVD players, all four suffer from pixelation and the third episode will not play AT ALL on all four dvds!!! I would not have bothered with this warning if all four hadn't suffered from the exact same problems which points to errors in the making of the dvds, I hope they get this fixed as soon as possible.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but long, and broken up into episodes
Review: I am a huge Pratchett fan, and thought that this DVD captured the essence of the book (as well as it can, being only dialog, not the satire of Pratchett's narrative). It was nearly 3hrs long without the special features (interview w/Pratchett, etc), and divided into 7 episodes, which one had to manually go back from the title screen and replay.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: They should have let Disney make it.
Review: I consider myself a fanatic Discworld fan, and was really looking forward to the seeing this (and the Wyrd Sisters animation). Boy, what a disappointment. The animation is way down there with Pokemon. And overly exaggagerated british dialects aren't all that funny either. To bungle this when the books are so good is a goddamn crime.

Save your money and pray to the gods that: 1) The guys who made this never gets to make another one. 2) When the movie comes, the real movie, it is made a lot better than this.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad
Review: I first saw this years ago ona channel four evening about the discworld and it got me hooked on reading the books, this was years ago and i couldnt remember how good it had being so i thought id buy it. After reading the book i had an idea of how characters looked and sounded and im afraid thsi just isnt it, the gags are there and its still funny but it just isnt really a patch on the book.
On a plus side the interview with Terry Prattchett was really interesting and a joy to watch.
Its not the worst film in the world but i think if it could have bn done in the style of the second playstation game it would ahve worked alot better.


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